Dr Paul Allen

By Dan Crabtree According to a 2020 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 21% of American adults suffer from a mental illness. Johns Hopkins says it’s 26%. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) says that in the US, 7 million people have a bipolar disorder, 21 million people have a major depressive episode each year, and 19.1 million people suffer from an anxiety disorder. As a result, NAMI records, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-24, which has increased by 35% since 1999. Although many have, on the whole, become more educated, more technologically sophisticated, and our hospitals more medically advanced than ever before, according to these statistics, we are also more depressed, more anxious, and more attention deficit than ever before. In short, we are living under the sovereignty of psychology. Ours is a culture ruled by mental health diagnoses. For those who desire to live by the Bible, the ubiquity of ps...

Maybe you’ve received a psychiatric or psychological diagnosis from a doctor or a therapist. Maybe you’ve been told that you have General Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Bipolar Disorder, Conduct Disorder, or some form of Substance Abuse Disorder. Or maybe you’ve diagnosed yourself by looking up information on these disorders online. However, you got it; now you’ve got a mental disorder diagnosis. You want to understand yourself rightly and honour the Lord with how you respond. What do you do? Before even dealing with a particular diagnosis, the worldview behind the diagnosis must be understood. In a previous article, we explored the assumptions behind the psychological bible’s classification of mental disorders. In short, the DSM-5-TR can’t explain our spiritual problems sufficiently because it assumes a non-spiritual, unbiblical worldview.  God’s Word, in contrast, is sufficient for “all of life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3) and to ...